Category Archives: Carlyle, Sylvia J.

This novel presents a very negative view of small town life at the beginning of the twentieth century. White men rule the town of Rivers Bend, and they are free to abuse their family members and the Black residents of the area. When a young African American is accused of assaulting a mentally disabled White girl, he is promptly lynched. The book follows the murderers over the next twenty years as their lives unravel. To a degree that is rare in real life, in this novel the guilty get their just desserts.